Every picture tells a story: the language and function of French

Every picture tells a story: the language and function of French
newspaper captions1
Dulcie M. Engel
1. Introduction
'Taking photographs out of the boxes at random, he tried
to look into the faces without seeking either signs or
secrets…To keep himself from getting pulled into these
faces' stories, he avoided reading the captions …'
Orhan Pamuk, The Black Book (2006: 282-3)
This paper explores the relationship between image and text, more specifically
between press photographs and their captions in the French written press. The
theory of image-text relationships has been shaped primarily by the writings of
Roland Barthes, but there has been little in-depth corpus-based analysis of press
photographs and captions. This study will analyse the function and language of
captions in relation to the image, and also in relation to the headline and article.
It is hoped to show that each of these elements has a very specific and
complementary role to play in contributing to the intertextuality of the
newspaper.
2. Theoretical background – approaches to text / image relations
There have been many studies of newspaper language, often with reference to
particular features such as genres, and of course to newspaper headlines.
Studies of genre in French, include faits divers (Monville-Burston & Waugh
1985), sports reports (Engel & Labeau 2005), and obituaries (Simonin 1984).
Newspaper headlines are discussed, with detailed references to previous studies,
in Engel (2000).
With respect to picture captions, there has been research into the use of captions
for the hearing-impaired, and their use as a teaching tool. In the first case,
interest is more or less exclusively in television or film captions; in the second
case, work has also focused on newspaper captions as in for example: Savino
(1999). Photo captions have also attracted the interest of researchers in natural
language processing, in particular, matching captions with photos from large
online collections – see for example: Berg et al (n.d.), Elworthy et al (2001). And
of course, newspaper captions are discussed in the field of journalism education
by Furet (1995), Irby (1997) and Oglesbee (1998).
Turning to more theoretical studies of the relationship between pictures and their
captions or titles, our starting point will be the seminal work of Roland Barthes.
Barthes considered the function of the media photograph in three highly
influential essays in particular: 'Photos-choc' (in Mythologies, 1957), 'Le message
photographique' (1961), and 'Rhétorique de l'image' (1964)2. 'Photos-choc'
(1957) is a critique of an exhibition of news photographs in Paris. Barthes's main
point is that these photographs, which are designed to shock the audience, do
not in fact do so: by choosing to capture a particular moment or scene, the
photographer has taken away our choice or interpretation:
'on a frémi pour nous, on a jugé pour nous, le photographe ne nous a rien
laissé qu'un simple droit d'acquiescement intellectuel' (1957: 106).
However, he finds some of the agency photos more successful because the
photographer is more distant from the image:
'le fait surpris éclate dans son entêtement, dans sa littéralité, dans
l'évidence même de sa nature obtuse…ces images étonnent parce qu'elles
paraissent à la première vue étrangères, calmes presque, inférieures à leurs
légendes…le naturel de ces images oblige le spectateur à une interrogation
violente, l'engage dans la voie d'un jugement qu'il élabore lui-même sans
être encombré par la présence démiurgique du photographe' (1957: 107).
Barthes does not refer to captions here, nor to any journalistic text, since the
photographs are removed from their original journalistic context. The reference
to the relationship with the caption is a point which is developed more fully in
subsequent essays.
In 'Le message photographique', Barthes points out that the newspaper photo is
not an isolated structure:
'elle communique au moins avec une autre structure, qui est le texte (titre,
légende ou article) dont toute photographie de presse est accompagnée'
(1982: 10).
There is always some sort of written commentary associated with the photo,
although this is not always a caption. For Barthes, the accompanying text is a
parasitical message which illustrates the picture, rather than vice versa – or at
least it had become so in the period in which he was writing:
' autrefois l'image illustrait le texte (le rendait plus clair); aujourd'hui, le
texte alourdit l'image, la grève d'une culture, d'une morale, d'une
imagination' (1982: 19).
Vis-à-vis the image, captions, headlines and articles have differing roles of
connotation and denotation: the caption has a lesser degree of connotation and a
greater degree of denotation (1982: 19). Often, the accompanying text does no
more than amplify the connotations already present in the picture; however it
can gain a new signification, an 'after the event' interpretation of the photo
(1982: 20).
In 'Rhétorique de l'image', Barthes concentrates on the semiology of an
advertising poster, but makes some important general comments on the
relationship between image and text, which he traces back to the development of
the book. It has however become more widespread in the era of mass
communication:
'il semble bien que le message linguistique soit présent dans toutes les
images: comme titre, comme légende, comme article de presse, comme
dialogue de film,…on voit par là qu'il n'est pas très juste de parler d'une
civilisation de l'image: nous sommes encore et plus que jamais une
civilisation de l'écriture' (1982: 30).
He distinguishes two functions for the accompanying text: 'ancrage' (anchorage)
and 'relais' (intermediary) (1982: 31). The text anchors the image by naming it:
'la légende…permet d'accommoder non seulement mon regard, mais encore
mon intellection…le message linguistique guide non plus l'identification,
mais l'interprétation…le texte dirige le lecteur' (1982: 31-32).
This anchoring function is the most common one, found both in news photos and
advertising. The intermediary function is rarer, and used where there is
complementarity between the text and image, where the text helps to move the
action forward, as in cartoons and films. Savino (1999) uses these terms slightly
differently from Barthes in her tutorial on press captions: 'les textes jouent un
role d'ancrage (exemple: la photographie atteste les faits rapportés dans la
légende), et de relais (la photo précise et complète les faits rapportés)'. Barthes'
definitions are the most widely used, but Savino's serve to differentiate functions
of newspaper captions, which can be useful.
Regarding the more specific text form of titles, Bosredon (1997) presents an
analysis of the pragmatics of identification in the titles of paintings. The
linguistic process of 'étiquetage' (labelling) identifies an object via a contiguous
linguistic sequence, the title (1997: 14). The nature of this labelling can result
in:
'des légendes tantôt sous la forme de textes courts ayant une fonction
d'explication ou de commentaire, tantôt sous la forme de SN3 désignatifs.
C'est sous cette forme pour l'essentiel que se développe l'intitulation
picturale' (1997: 57)4.
For Bosredon, captions have one sole function:
'servir d'interprétation linguistique…les vraies limites de la légende sont
imposés par l'image ou plus exactement par le rôle explicatif de la légende
en relation avec l'image. En d'autres termes, les légendes ne peuvent
designer, commenter ou expliquer autre chose que les figurations
auxquelles elles s'attachent' (1997: 94).
In other words, the caption is subsidiary to and determined in some way by the
image. This one function is similar to Barthes's 'ancrage'. The focus on the
primacy of the picture rather than the text echoes Barthes's idea of the
parasitical message in his 1961 essay (1982: 18-19, op.cit.), rather than that of
the text directing the reader as presented in his 1964 essay (1982: 31-32,
op.cit.). Of course, Bosredon's prime interest is in the titles of paintings, rather
than press photographs.
Returning to the written press, Stuart Hall (1972) analyses the different levels of
meaning of newspaper photos, and their role in the production of news and the
articulation of ideological themes. News photos often contain potential news
elements, which are emphasized by the editor via a caption, and link to an
article: it is this link that can turn a non-news photo into a news photo (1972:
54). Following Barthes, he sees the primary function of the caption as one of
anchorage:
'Anchorage has the function of 'selective elucidation' – it exerts a repressive
force over the relative freedom of the signifieds of the photo. It is therefore
(together with the headline, which frames both photo and text and
embraces them) par excellence the level of ideological signification. Here,
the connotive power of the image is most openly specified, cashed and
closed' (1972: 60).
Burgin (1983: 226) notes that photography is not a 'purely visual' medium:
'I am not simply alluding to the fact that we rarely see a photograph in use
which is not accompanied by writing (though this is highly significant); even
the uncaptioned 'art' photograph , framed and isolated on the gallery wall,
is invaded by language in the very moment it is looked at: in memory, in
association, snatches of words and images continually alternate and
intermingle' (1983: 226).
Photographs therefore represent a narrated world, a world of cause and effect, of
activities and consequences. This world is not achieved in a linear manner as
with language, but: 'in a repetition of 'vertical' readings, in stillness, in atemporality' (1983: 243).
Narrowing down relationship of word and image, Tétu (1990) discusses the
development of the use of illustrations in newspapers, from early nineteenth
century engravings to modern photographs. The link – and the nature of the link
– between photo and text is crucial:
'la photographie ne montre pas l'action, mais les acteurs, et c'est l'article
qui comporte le récit de l'action; le texte définit le “syntagme” narratif, et la
photographie tendra d'abord à présenter le “paradigme” des rôles' (1990:
137).
Another dimension of the nature of the link is examined in the same collection,
by Mouillaud (1990) who reminds us of the importance of layout in the
newspaper5: the use of borders, edges, columns, typefaces, and the
juxtaposition of stories:
'le texte du journal se présente, d'emblée, comme un “inter-texte”' (1990:
143).
Press photographs are of course another element which contributes to this
intertextuality. For Mouillaud, the only unifying meta-textual factor is the
headline. He uses the same term as Bosredon (1997) to refer to headlines as
labelling devices (1990: 149).
Scott (1999) devotes a whole chapter of his book on the relationship between
photography and language to the functions of captions in the press. He uses a
corpus of 10 British daily newspapers from 13th July 1993 as a source of
observations (although he does not present any quantitative, statistical analysis
of his corpus). He points out that photographs become photojournalism only by
the process of being selected for the newspaper out of a whole range of potential
photos (1999: 99-103). The function of the accompanying caption is to elicit a
particular response in the reader (1999: 103). This is reminiscent of Hall's
analysis.
Images are part of the intertextuality of the newspaper; the very nature of
newspaper coverage of the news means that we are given a snapshot of events
day by day:
'The newspaper is, in effect, a time-lapse camera that presents the nonsequential as sequential, that slows reality down from the second-bysecond to the day-by-day' (1999: 107).
Furthermore:
'We can read the sequence of photographs in a newspaper as a shorthand
or aide-mémoire for the current state of the news…even if the available
photos can only show us the prelude or the aftermath of a particular event,
they have one advantage over the column: they preserve the present by
assimilating it in their own 'thereness' ' (1999: 114-5).
Reading the photographic sequence is another example of the intertextuality of
newspapers discussed by Mouillaud, and the question of 'thereness' echoes
Barthes on the text as an 'after the event' interpretation(1982: 20, op.cit.).
Hall (1972) argues that the ideological message of the news photo is
counterbalanced by its actualisation, i.e. the move from historical context to
news. This is reflected in the tense usage in captions (and headlines):
'The characteristic tense of the news photo is the historic instantaneous. All
history is converted into 'today', cashable and explicable in terms of the
immediate' (1972: 84).
Scott (1999) also singles out the present tense, including the present participle
(1999: 113)6. This is a multifunctional present tense:
'it participates not only in the omnitemporal present of the fictional/painted
image, but also in the instantaneous present of the commentary…And
thanks to the possibility of a temporal modifier of past time…it participates
also in the historic present. The present tense of the photographic caption is
thus a 'compound' and fairly complex tense' (1999: 116-7).
In a more direct (semantic) way than through use of tenses, the caption defines
the photograph when imbued with an editorial function:
'photographs are linguistically dominated by their captions, the language of
the editor governs the actions of those in the news' (1999: 124)7.
We can illustrate how captions reflect this editorial function by considering two
recent stories where captions caused a stir.
The first case refers to photos taken at the time of the New Orleans hurricane in
2005. One photo from Agence France Presse shows two white hurricane
survivors wading through flood water, carrying food. The key phrase in the
caption is: 'after finding bread and soda from a local grocery store'. The second
photo, from Associated Press, shows a black man wading through flood water
carrying food: 'after looting a grocery store'. After complaints of racism , AFP
asked for their photo to be pulled from databases8.
Secondly, in February 2008, at the time of a controversial Japanese whale-hunt,
the Australian ABC News website ran a story and photo with the caption: 'The
body of a minke whale and its calf are dragged onto the whaling ship'. The
Japanese authorities issued a statement saying that the two whales were not a
mother and calf9.
The point is that for the general reading public, in both cases, we only know in
any depth what we are seeing when we read the caption. With respect to the
whale story, Durrer (2008) comments:
'Since the words that accompany pictures are of such importance, one
might well wonder whether it is pictures or whether it is words that make us
see' (2008: 2)
A fitting conclusion to this general discussion of newspaper photos and captions,
before we show how the above notions of anchorage, intertextuality, layout,
place and time markers and editorialisation of captions can be applied
analytically to a corpus of press images.
3. Examining captions in a French newspaper corpus
3.1 The corpus
Our corpus consisted of 5 daily newspapers from 14 th May 2008: Aujourd'hui en
France (Auj), Le Figaro (Fig), France-Soir (FSoir), Libération (Libé) and Le Monde
(Mond). 10 These general 'news' papers comprise a range of political views and
stylistic approaches, while covering more or less the same stories. The sample
concentrates therefore primarily on news photographs11.
3.2 Analysis
The analysis consisted firstly of a quantitative analysis, considering each
photograph in relation to its text. Does it have a caption? Is it associated with a
headline? Is it linked to an article? These questions link to discussions of
anchorage, intertextuality and layout, as discussed in section 2.
Then more qualitative questions were asked. Which tenses do we find in the
captions? What is the function of place and time markers in captions? Finally,
how do different newspapers approach the same story in terms of photos chosen
and captions used? These questions echo the comments of researchers discussed
in section 2 re. the functions of anchorage and actuality.
3.2.1 Quantitative analysis
Table 1 Newspaper caption corpus: quantitative analysis
Newspaper
Av. no photos per page
FSoir
Libé
Fig
Mond
Auj
2.34
0.95
1.63
0.57
1.70
% photos with caption
58.67
55.26
96.15
82.35
89.71
% photos with headline
97.33
71.05
88.46
88.24
73.53
% photos with article
92.00
68.42
76.92
82.35
77.94
% photos direct link
with text
94.67
65.79
69.23
64.71
98.53
%
40.91
19.05
72.00
28.57
34.43
Table 1 shows that the average number of photos per page varies enormously,
from 0.57 in Le Monde to 2.34 in France-Soir. The two papers at each end of the
scale should not surprise us: Le Monde prides itself on its seriousness, whereas
France-Soir is known for its sensationalism, making it close in content and style
to the British tabloid press. Libération, is close to its fellow left-wing paper, Le
Monde on the scale, while in the middle we find the right of centre Le Figaro and
the mid-market Aujourd'hui en France.
The results for percentage of photos with caption place Le Figaro at the top,
closely followed by Le Monde and Aujourd'hui en France, with much lower
percentages for France-Soir and Libération. This reflects different editorial policy
on the use of photos: Libération has the feature 'En Image', where a photo is
placed with a headline and article, but no caption; also in both Libération and
France-Soir, there are lots of small items which just give a headline and article
and dispense with captions.
Headlines seem to be more vital than captions: all percentages here are over
70%, and are particularly high for France-Soir, which scored low on the captions,
but this reversal is not repeated as dramatically for Libération.
A similar pattern of relative frequency emerges in the figures for photos with
articles. The low percentages for Libération and Aujourd'hui en France for this
and the previous category are explained by the high frequency in these two
publications of one article accompanied by more than one photo, which occurs
much more in these two papers than the other three.
Regarding the anchorage function, the direct link between photo and text is
highest in Aujourd'hui en France and France-Soir, i.e. the two more tabloid-like
publications. Bearing in mind their more down market appeal, there is perhaps a
tendency to be more literal and direct in the use of photos to accompany articles.
These were also the two highest scoring publications on average number of
photos per page, which would suggest an importance given to image relative to
text, linking perhaps to a desire to avoid off-putting, dense columns of text
which may impact on their attractiveness to their target audience.
This particular category is rather a subjective one, and it might be useful to
consider some contrasting examples. Indirect links can be seen in Le Figaro,
where an article about the founder of the Cirque du Soleil is accompanied by a
photo of one of the Cirque's performances in Philadelphia earlier in the month, as
well as a more direct link through a photo of the founder himself. In the same
paper, a headline and article about foreign aid workers coming to help in the
aftermath of the Chinese earthquake is accompanied by a photo showing Chinese
rescuers at work (of course, the foreign aid workers have not yet arrived). In
contrast, in Le Monde, a similar photo (in fact the same scene from a different
angle), has a caption starting: 'Des sauveteurs chinois s'affairent autour d'une
jeune fille'. Another direct link, this time in France-Soir. The subtitle reads:
'Nicolas Sarkozy a défendu hier dans l'Isère le projet “LME”, destiné à faire
baisser les prix'. The picture shows the president in mid-speech, surrounded by
factory workers, and the caption reads: '“C'est pas foutu”, a déclaré Nicolas
Sarkozy, hier, à Vienne'.
These examples show how anchorage can vary, from the extremely literal to the
tangential.
The final column in our table provides preliminary data for our discussion of
tense usage, quantifying the use of present tense in the captions.
Table 2 Newspaper caption corpus: tense usage
Newspaper
present
no finite verb
Le Figaro
72.00%
4.00%
France-Soir
40.91%
27.27%
Aujourd'hui
34.43%
31.15%
Le Monde
28.57%
50.00%
Libération
19.05%
66.67%
Use of present tense ranges from 72% in Le Figaro to just over 19% in
Libération. In the latter, most captions contain no finite verb, which is also
common in Le Monde, and France-Soir. In Aujourd'hui en France however, there
are quite a range of tenses used. These results put into question the various
comments noted in section 2 on the prevalence of the present tense in the
language of captions. Although it is by far the most commonly found tense, in
most cases there is no finite verb present. This reflects findings on tenses in a
corpus of French newspaper headlines (Engel 2000 - below). However, whereas
a similar pattern emerged across the different newspapers for headlines (table
3), for the captions, there is a more varied picture (table 2):
Table 3 Newspaper headline corpus (Engel 2000) : tense usage
Newspaper
present
no finite verb
Le Monde
31.7%
61.4%
Aujourd'hui
26.9%
60.6%
France-Soir
20.6%
73.8%
Le Figaro
18.2%
78.6%
We will explore this feature in more depth in the section below.
To summarise, our quantitative analysis has shown much variation between the
five newspapers in terms of frequency of photos, captions and headlines, also in
terms of direct links between tense and text, and use of the present tense. These
variations reflect differences in ideological stance, editorial policy, newspaper
design and layout, and target audience. The differences also serve to illustrate
that some of the generalisations made about captions in terms of function and
linguistic features need perhaps to be modified. Our qualitative analysis of three
specific aspects of captions on our corpus will serve to reinforce this perspective.
3.2.2 Qualitative analysis
Tense usage in captions
'A photograph captures a moment in time. Whenever possible, use present
tense. This will create a sense of immediacy and impact' (Irby, 1997: 1)
Despite the comments of Irby and others, many French captions in our corpus
seem not to favour the present tense, avoiding finite verbs, or using other
tenses, the exception being Le Figaro. Where it is used, as with newspaper
headlines, the present tense tends to refer to the recent past: a photo by
definition is something that has already taken place. Here are some examples
from the corpus:
1. Hier Jean-Paul Mouren (à gauche) et Laurent Pellecuer (à droite) fêtent
leur victoire à bord de leur monocoque, à Saint-Barthélemy (Le Figaro
14.05.08)
2. Juan Carlos d'Espagne épouse Sofia de Grèce (Headline: Ce jour-là…le 14
mai 1962, Le Figaro 14.05.08)
3. Paris (IVe), hier, Jacques et Bernadette Chirac arrivent au Centre
Pompidou (Aujourd'hui en France 14.05.08)
These examples illustrate clearly the importance of temporal markers in the
caption or associated headline which situate the event in the past, despite the
use of present tense.
In other cases, the present is used as a general form, for a universal truth
(example 4), or to describe a current situation (examples 5, 6):
4. Grâce à l'autopostage, utilisation n'est pas synonyme de possession!
(France-Soir 14.05.08)
5. La messagerie instantanée MSN est utilisée par 70% des jeunes
internautes français (Aujourd'hui en France 14.05.08)
6. Cet hôtel social de Montpellier sert de lieu de transit aux jeunes
homosexuels rejetés par leur famille et n'ayant pas de place au Refuge
(Libération 14.05.08)
We also find a range of other tenses in the captions:
7. Nicolas Sarkozy, qui a visité hier l'usine Yoplait dans la banlieue de
Vienne, a développé ses arguments en faveur de la concurrence (Le Figaro
14.05.08)
8. Kalistra a été trompée par un homme qui se faisait passer pour une
adolescente sur un forum de discussion (Aujourd'hui en France 14.05.08)
9. Hier les secours arrivaient à l'épicentre du séisme dans le province du
Sichuan (France-Soir 14.05.08)
10. L'équipe parisienne devra être sacrément unie pour sortir du match
piégeux à Sochaux (France-Soir 14.05.08)
11. Abdeslam Ouaddou avait reçu le soutien du ministre des Sports,
Bernard Laporte (France-Soir 14.05.08)
12. “Le Chant des Oiseaux” du Catalan Albert Serra, qui fut révelé à la
Quinzaine 2006 avec “Honor de Cavalleria” (Libération 14.05.08)
The effect of these captions is primarily to pick up the narrative in the text
(examples 7-9), to pass comment (example 10), or to fill in background
(examples 11-12). All serve to give the reader a 'taster' of the story in the
article, and thus contribute along with the headline and photo, to draw the
reader in. The photo can often be the first thing that captures the reader's
attention: the accompanying text (headline, caption) provides a context for the
photo and helps the reader decide whether it is worth reading the whole article
(see Oglesbee 1998:2, cited below). These tensed examples illustrate Hall's
concept of 'selective elucidation'(1972: 60, op.cit.) : the very specific captions
limit potential interpretations, in marked contrast to the following, where there is
no finite verb in the caption:
13. A Beyrouth, une affiche du général Michel Sleimane, commandant en
chef de l'armée et candidat à la présidence de la République (Le Monde
14.05.08)
14. De gauche à droite: Ryszard Ronczewski (l'ancien détenu) et Alexandre
Fehling (Sven) (Le Monde 14.05.08)
15. Pique-nique sans OGM à Paris, hier, quelques heures avant l'examen du
projet de loi sur les organismes génétiquement modifiés (Libération
14.05.08)
16. Ségolène Royal, le 4 juin 2007, à Nantes (Libération 14.05.08)
These are prime examples of the labelling function of captions, relying heavily on
noun phrases, and time and place markers: they do not offer readers a taster of
the story to the same degree as many of the tensed examples we have
examined, rather they classify the picture, designating its function on the page,
allowing for a more open interpretation.
Place and time markers in captions
'La légende, le texte d'accompagnement précisant et orientant une lecture
parfois trop flottante de l'image' (Savino, 1999: 1)
We have already noted the importance of place and time markers in captions,
particularly when the present tense refers to past time (examples 1-3), or where
there is no finite verb (examples 13-16). Indeed, there is a general tendency in
caption writing to supply the place and time. This is not surprising: many people
annotate their photo albums (or the backs of photos) with similar information. In
the press, it is even more important to give such details on news photographs,
emphasising the vital function of anchorage.
This is particularly noticeable in Aujourd'hui en France:
17. Esplanade des Invalides (Paris VIIe) hier…Vienne (Isère), hier…
Beyrouth (Liban), hier après-midi…Beichuan (Chine), hier…Kalagyisu
(Birmanie), hier…
Each photo is categorised in time and space, in varying degrees of precision: for
Parisian photos, the arrondissement is given in brackets, for elsewhere in France,
the département, and for outside France, the country.
Photo and caption choices for the same story
'We almost always look at the photos first. The caption is a natural
extension of this curiosity. For this reason, great captions can hook readers
and keep them interested long enough to read the related material'
(Oglesbee, 1998:2)
In this section, we consider treatments of one particular news story in the five
newspapers: the devastating earthquake in China. We will start by summarizing
the coverage in each paper in terms of headlines, photos and captions used:
18. Le Monde
Page 1
Headline: Chine. Dans le sud-ouest du pays, le plus violent séisme
depuis 1976
Photo: (colour) Girl on stretcher surrounded by rescue workers.
Caption: Des sauveteurs chinois s'affairent autour d'une jeune fille.
Elle vient d'être extraite, mardi 13 mai, à Juyuan, province du Sichuan,
des décombres d'un établissement scolaire…(5 more lines) NO
ARTICLE: 'Lire page 4'
Page 4
Surtitle: Chine. Un bilan provisoire fait état d'une dizaine de milliers de
morts et de disparus
Headline: Le pouvoir chinois confronté au séisme du Sichuan
Photo: (black and white) A man walking past a collapsed building.
Caption: Mardi 13 mai, un immeuble effondré situé à Dujiangyan, une
ville située non loin de l'épicentre, au sud-ouest de la Chine. Le
tremblement de terre a atteint une amplitude de 7,8 sur l'échelle de
Richter
PLUS ARTICLE, MAP, LIST OF WORST EARTHQUAKES
19. Le Figaro
Page 1
Headline: Après le séisme, la Chine laisse entrer l'aide internationale
Photo: (colour) Girl on a stretcher surrounded by Chinese rescue
workers (same scene as 18, but from a different angle)
Caption: none.
PLUS SHORT ARTICLE, THEN: 'Pages 5 et 15'
Page 5
Headline: Séisme: Pékin prompt à envoyer du secours
Subtitle: Extrême-Orient. Le bilan du tremblement de terre du lundi
faisait état hier soir de 20 000 morts et plusieurs milliers de personnes
encore sous les décombres
Photo: (colour) Same girl as on page 1, on a stretcher, but still under
rubble (i.e. taken before page 1 picture).
Caption: Des sauveteurs tentent de dégager une jeune fille des
décombres d'une école de Juyuan, hier dans la province du Sichuan,
au lendemain d'un séisme mesuré à 7,9 sur l'échelle de Richter
PLUS ARTICLE
(Page 15 is an editorial on the earthquake, with no photos)
20. Libération
Page 8
Surtitle: Chine. Les secouristes, aidés par la population, peinent à
rejoindre la zone la plus dévastée
Headline: Mobilisation générale au Sichuan
Photo: (colour) A couple embrace next to the covered corpse of their
child.
Caption: A Dujiangyan, des victimes du séisme aux côtés du corps de
leur enfant, tué par l'effondrement de son école
PLUS ARTICLE, MAP
21. Aujourd'hui en France
Page 1
Headline: Séisme en Chine
Photo: (colour) Young child in arms of rescuer.
Caption: L'angoisse des survivants
NO ARTICLE : 'Page 9'
Page 9
Surtitle: Chine
Headline: Les survivants vivent dans la peur des répliques
Photo: (colour) A young man trapped in the ruins.
Caption: Beichuan (Chine), hier. Ce garçon sous perfusion, prisonnier
des ruines d'un bâtiment qui s'est effondré après le tremblement de
terre de lundi, attend d'être dégagé
PLUS ARTICLE, MAP, and 2 associated articles on same page (concerns
for nuclear facilities in China)
22. France-Soir
Page 17
Surtitle: Chine. Un dernier bilan d'environ 12.000 morts, selon les
autorités
Headline: Le Sichuan dans la crainte de nouvelles secousses
Subtitle: Dans cette importante region économique du pays, les
survivants cherchent à se protéger des répliques annoncées, suite au
terrible tremblement de terre de lundi. Une catastrophe écologique
pourrait également survenir
Photo: (colour) A hand juts out of the ruins; two rescuers attend.
Caption: Hier, les secours arrivaient à l'épicentre du séisme dans la
province du Sichuan
PLUS ARTICLE, and 1 associated article on same page (on missing
foreign tourists)
What points of interest emerge from the treatment of this news story in five
different papers? Firstly, we are examining here the 'hooks'; the elements which
draw the reader in, rather than the detail of the articles. Therefore position in the
paper is worth noting. In 18 (Le Monde), 19 (Le Figaro), and 21(Aujourd'hui en
France), we are offered a taster on the front page, and a direction to the inside
pages. In 20 (Libération), the article appears on page 8 out of 40, therefore
fairly near the front; in 22 (France-Soir), it appears on page 17 of 32, so in the
middle. The largest page 1 photo is in 18 (Le Monde).
Four newspapers use a photo of a person being rescued (18,19,21,22), others
show survivors (20) or damage (18). All the colour photos are emotionally laden,
showing people in distress, the colour adding to the drama. This recalls Tétu's
point (1990: 137) that photos show the actors rather than the action.
There are variations in the approach as expressed in the headlines and captions:
some emphasise the rescue efforts (18,19,20), others the fear of aftershocks
among survivors (21,22), or the ecological effects (22)12.
There is not always a direct link between the photo and the accompanying text:
for example, in 19 (page 1 text), the headline refers to international aid, but the
photo shows Chinese rescuers; in 20 the surtitle and headline refer to the rescue
effort, but the photo highlights an individual family's tragedy; in 21 (page 9), the
headline refers to fear of aftershocks, and the photo shows a young man trapped
in ruins; there is a similar combination in 22.
Finally, the linguistic structure of the captions further illustrate our points on the
use of tenses, place and time markers, from the specificity of 22, where the
imparfait draws the reader into the narrative, to the generality of 20, where the
lack of finite verb lifts the individual tragedy up to a universal level.
In summary, we can note the importance of place and time markers in captions,
particularly when present tense is used to refer to past time, or no finite verb is
present. Although these are the two most frequent types of tense usage, other
tenses can transform the caption into a mini-narrative, or supply background
detail. In the case of varying treatments of the Chinese earthquake story, it
seems that the key to photo selection is emotional power, even when the photo
may not relate directly to the headline and subsequent article.
4. Conclusion
Newspaper photo captions are an excellent example of the image-text
relationship. This mini-study suggests that newspaper photos are the most
salient hooks which draw the reader into a story; their captions anchor these
photos in relation to the story. Captions feed the reader with information on
people, time and places, tantalising snippets of detail which make the reader
want to read more. Captions transform a photo into a 'news photo'. Furthermore,
they place a particular interpretation on the image, shaping the reader's
understanding of that image.
In our small corpus of French newspaper captions, we have shown the variations
across the five newspapers in their general use of captions, and in their
approaches to specific stories. The use of tense appears to be more varied than
suggested by many commentators. Furthermore, in terms of degree of
anchorage, a more complex picture emerges. It is not uncommon for there to be
minimal links between the photo and the accompanying text, and captions
themselves range from general labels to detailed narratives. These points tend to
support the idea that the text (caption), rather than the picture, directs the
reader.
Above all, this paper has provided an insight into a rather neglected area of
newspaper language. It would be particularly useful to follow on from this study
with a cross-linguistic comparison. Comparative studies of newspaper headlines
have highlighted both similarities and differences across languages, and I would
suggest the same would be true for newspaper captions.
References
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--------
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Notes
1
This research would not have been possible without the resources and the help of colleagues at
the School of Languages, Literatures and Performing Arts and the library at Queen's University
Belfast, February –May 2008. I would particularly like to thank Nigel Harkness (QUB) for
collecting the newspaper corpus in Paris.
I am also very grateful to the editors and reviewers of WJFMS for their valuable and detailed
comments which have made this a much better paper. Any remaining errors or omissions are
my own.
2
For these latter two articles, page references will be to the 1982 essay collection, L'obvie et
l'obtus.
3
SN = Syntagme Nominal (Noun Phrase, NP)
4
Often a distinction is made between the term 'title' (titre), which is merely indexical, and
'caption' (légende), which is editorial.
5
On how to interpret newspaper layout, see also Peytard (1975).
6
See also Irby (1997), Oglesbee (1998).
7
The idea of linguistic domination contrasts with Bosredon (1997: 94) discussed above, on the
limitation of the caption by the image. On the editorial function in caption writing, see also Furet
(1995: 108-116), Oglesbee (1998).
8
Story filed online by Raw Story, 09/02/05.
9
Story reported in Durrer (2008).
10
For the purposes of this study, additional supplements to the main papers were not analysed.
This concerned three of our five titles: Le Figaro, France-Soir and Le Monde.
11
Not included: byline photos, advertisements, photos in TV listings, maps, diagrams, cartoons
or drawings.
12
There is also a variation of fact: was the earthquake 7.8 (Le Monde) or 7.9 (Le Figaro) on the
Richter scale?